Activision chief on the three things that will make Call of Duty different this year

Activision chief executive Eric Hirshberg is, of course, confident that his company is producing the best Call of Duty video game ever for launch on Nov. 4.

Asked what differentiates Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare from the others in an analyst conference call on first quarter earnings, Hirshberg said that the game is the first one releasing from Activision’s Sledgehammer Games studio and the first to benefit from a three-year development cycle.

He said that the trailer revealed last week shows how Sledgehammer has made use of that extra time to do more experimentation, iteration, and creative thinking.

Specifically, he said that new game mechanics and core gameplay changes will be evident with altered melee combat. Also, players will have “exo suits,” exoskeleton armor that gives them much more strength, like the ability to punch into an armored car and pull out its driver with one hand. It will also enable players to jump far distances with a rocket booster.

He also said that the team was able to put more emphasis on story and character. The new villain, played by actor Kevin Spacey, is “soon to be iconic,” Hirshberg said.

He also said that facial capture technology that was experimental in previous games has “moved from research and development into real gameplay.” That means the graphics on the next-generation game consoles will be much more realistic and that the faces will be a lot more realistic than in previous games.